Where there’s a will there’s a waffle

Posted on Wed Apr 9th, 2025 @ 6:26am by Wilhelmina Vermeulen & Teresa Forrest

Mission: Shackles
Location: Will’s quarter's
Timeline: Just after leaving Freecloud
2339 words - 4.7 OF Standard Post Measure

Tree looked at the list of tickets, requests for engineer time that crew had submitted. One of them stood out, and while normally a faulty replicator was a rather low priority ticket, this one came from a crewmember she hadn't met yet, so she took it upon herself to claim the ticket and answer it.

And so it came to be that the engineer made her way down to the crew decks, personal quarters, tapping her comm badge as she did. "Tree Forrest to Wilhelmina Vermewlen," she said, absolutely murdering the pronunciation of that last name - though that was understandable as the dutch / flemish 'eu' sound simply didn't exist in Federation standard. "I'm on my way to answer your ticket from this morning. Gonna need you to let me in though." Well, not really, but most people considered it impolite if engineers just gave themselves access to personal quarters left right and center.

There was a scrambling sound on the com, like someone had been surprised and opened the link before dropping it. Then a warm chuckle came through, soft accented Federation standard replying. "Ah thank you Tree, that was much quicker than I thought it would be. I'll open up now." A moment later there was the soft puff and hiss of the door releasing just up ahead of Tree and a head popped into the corridor. Lilac hair, freshly dyed falling from two messy buns. An easy smile followed.

"Oh hello! I'm Will. Thank you for coming" The vowel sounds were more pronounced in person than over the com, with the name sounding more like Vil.

Whatever train of thought Tree had had going was instantly derailed when she looked up from her PADD and found herself staring at Will's pastel clad chest - a sight that made her both blush and low key envious. "Uh ... " She cleared her through and looked up - way up - and whatever had been left of her train of thought had now completely disappeared when she saw the luxurious head of bright, vibrant lilac hair.

"Gods, lady, you're gonna make me strain a muscle in my neck to look at you without being impolite," A slightly flustered engineer offered, scratching behind her neck as if for emphasis. "Teresa Forrest, friends call me Tree. I fix stuff around here. Seems you've got some stuff that needs fixin'?"

Will chuckled warmly and held out her hand to shake. “A pleasure Tree. Ironic as you would think by name alone the Tree would be taller. If you like I can give you a boost to have a look?” Will couldn’t resist teasing the smaller woman in return, hoping Tree would be as easy ally unphased about her height as will was her own.

Had she been at home she would have also stooped for three quick kisses, however the further she got from home the more she relied on a simple handshake. Not everyone was used to such a greeting. “Wilhelmina Vermeulen, although since that is such a mouthful most call me Will. Thank you for coming so quickly, I had wanted to add some personal recepies to the replicators files, but the moment I tried it simply…” Will trailed off and made a puffing noise with her mouth indicating the replicator had fizzled. “I am sorry if I have caused you more work.” She shrugged and then stepped aside to let the tiny woman in.

"Yeah, well, I'm short. Makes the nickname funnier," beat. "Say the people who gave me it. Over time I figured I'd just role with it, and - well - it grew on me and now it won't leaf," Tree replied with a smug smirk, before stepping inside as bade. "So the new recipes won't take, but it works just fine for existing ones? Have you tried?"

Will snorted at the pun and moved to get out of the engineers way. “Hah, I understand, wise do you to embrace it.” She looked to the replicator and poured a little. “I have not tried the existing recipes just yet, I was worried that whatever it was I would make it worse.” She shrugged, a gesture contained to her upper body, then moved to sit on her bed so she wouldn’t be looming over Tree as she worked. Slouching back a little as she settled.

"Well, lemme run a few quick tests then to see if I can narrow down the problem," Teresa mused, making her way over to the replicator. She took out a little 10mm socket from her toolpouch and placed it in the receptacle before calling out, "Computer, recycle and replace." The replicator bleeped it's confirmation, then dematerialized the used socket before manifesting a new, seemingly perfect one. "Seems the materials scanner, existing database and materials output are functional; at least for non-biological materials. Let's see ... "

"Computer, one glass of orange juice," Another confirmatory bleep, another blue swirl of energy as the requested beverage appeared. Tree grabbed the glass, sniffed the contents, examined them closely then with a shrug down the drink. "Mmmmm. Refreshing," as she placed the empty mug back in the receptable. "Alright, seems the food algorithms are also still there, so it's probably a disconnect between the internal memory systems and the ship's own central database. Let's test."

"Computer, make new entry. Fifty percent orange juice, fifty percent apple juice. Store as Tree number twentyfive."
Teresa waited a moment after the bleep of confirmation before speaking up again. "Computer, one Tree number twentyfive," now a different result though. "Unable to comply, no such entry in database. Please specify." Tree did a little eureka as she started pulling off the main interface panel. "Database desynch, likely. Something getting lost sending from here to the main computer. I can fix that," beat. "Because I'm very good."

“My dear…” Will looked highly amused by the shorter woman, quirking an eyebrow as the corner of her lips tugged up. “I did not understand half of what you just said, but I am glad you seem to know what is wrong. It all sounds very technical and complicated, but I am impressed by the speed with which you have diagnosed the problem.” She reached over to where she had left her data pad abandoned on her pillow.

“Once you have fixed it do you think we could test it with this recipe?” Will offered the data pad with the recipe on it. “I would appreciate your thoughts on it too.” The recipe was for waffles. So simple to make, but to perfect, Will had spent a long time on it. And these waffles in particular were how they made them in her village. Dipped half in chocolate, and the perfect thing for when you needed an instant sugary hit.

"Sure thing, just need to figure out what's wrong. All I've narrowed down so far is where it's - ... wrong. Ok, that one got away from me. Where the fault is, I mean," the smaller woman mused, pulling out the unit's main control board and starting to closely examine a particular area. "See, this is where the main computer interface is on these models, for when the local database doesn't kn - ah. Yeah. That would do it," she indicated a component which had leaked some black, resin like residue. "Faulty caps on the end level encoder. Means the encoder can't do its work properly and likely produces garbage instead of signals the computer can do something with. Makes me wonder why the computer hasn't flagged the incoming data ... "

"I'ma go get a new one - well, a recycled one. Be right back, and we'll have that replicator humming again in a jiffy," Tree offered, heading out the door again.

Will leaned in with curiosity when Tree showed her what was wrong, however she couldn’t help but wrinkle her nose swing the black goop. “Ah okay.” She then scooted out of the way to let Tree past, blinking in the wake of the small engineer. Will tilted her head and then laughed. “Human tornado that one.” She said to the empty room. Clearly Tree was a force of nature, the way she had bustled in and then out again. Will looked at the mess that was where her replicator was and hoped that this particular force of nature did in fact come back and finish things.

It didn't take long for Tree to find a functional replicator, feed it the damaged control board and request a manifest a functional one. Replacement acquired, she made her way back to Will's quarters, waving the new board around in triumph. "Here we go. Just a matter of sliding it in like so, making sure all the connections are hooked up, aaaaaand .... rebooting the unit. Shouldn't take long."

Will watched it all with calm curiosity, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips. “Well, look at that. I know it might seem simple to you but sometimes I think engineers are witches, in the best possible way of course. Thank you so much.” She took a moment to make some last minute tweaks to her recipe. The trick she had found was avoiding perfection. The replicator would aim to make everything exactly, but real cooking was never computer perfect. The way the chocolate pooled I wave not on the waffles surface was part of what made a liege waffle enjoyable, having one just on the edge of too crisp on the outside but fluffy and soft in the middle. It was those kind of imperfections Will took pride in including in her versions of replicator recipes.

“Let me know when you are ready for me to load it in and test it.” She said wiggling the data pad.

"You are very - " the replicator dinged, a small green status light indicating ready. " ... welcome. Machines are easier to deal with than people, I find. Go ahead, try your thing. It should work now," Teresa smiled, standing back and allowing Will space.

Will snorted inelegantly, amused by the sentiment. “You can certainly turn them off when they are annoying you, which is something I have heard is frowned upon.” She chuckled and then came to stand next to Teresa, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet as she bent a little to load the recipe in. “Probably easier to fix too, although I’m sure a competent medical professional might have something more useful to say on the matter.” It didn’t take long to load the recipe in and once she was done she glanced at Tree. “Shall I…?” She wanted to check it would be ready for her to order the waffle. Not sure if the engineer wanted to do any last minute checks.

"What, you want me to put on pompoms and cheer you on?" Tree smirked, her eyes twinkling with good humor. "Because I totally will if you ask me nice enough."

Will snorted and shook her head. “I do not think that will be necessary, but you could certainly do me the favour of trying it with me.” She then turned to the replicator and after a moment of hesitation she ordered. “Computer, liege waffles please.” She then waited to see if the replicator would behave.

A familiar bleep of acknowledgement, the blue swirling energy particles as the machine deposited one perfect order of liege waffles. Teresa smiled. "There we go. Love it when things go right first try."

Will gave a small laugh and clapped Tree on the shoulder in a friendly gesture. “Haha! Thanks to you! I can see why despite her age, the ship continues to run relatively reliably.” Will then took one of the waffles, one half crispy warm bare batter and the other dipped in rich chocolate. She inspected it critically before offering the plate with the remaining waffle to Tree. “Please, ah if you do not mind chocolate that is. One last favour would be to give me your honest opinion.”

Will then took a bite of her own waffle. There was a satisfying give of biting through the chocolate, down to crispy waffle shell and then fluffy light interior. The recipe was sweet, perhaps a little too much so for some, and Will chewed thoughtfully before swallowing. “Hmmm it is missing something. It is still too perfect perhaps? Or maybe I should try a chocolate with a little more bite, more cocoa.”

"Ooo, a snack. Chocolate is fine! I love chocolate," Tree instantly reached for the waffle, already licking her lips. A moment spent contemplating it before taking a big bite, closing her eyes and going 'mmmm' as she savoured the taste. "Thish ish gud~" she ventured, mouth full, though she finished the bite before speaking again. "I think the cocoa content is fine. Maybe some whipped cream? Or strawberry pieces? Oh! Or both~"

Will wrinkled her nose for a moment, a good Liège waffle, the kind she was trying to recreate from her childhood, shouldn't need extra sweetness but Tree was probably right. Might help to offset some of the artificial flavours. She tapped onto the recipe on her data padd, creating a new copy which she labelled the Tree Special. "Yeah I think you might be right. It does need something extra and it is rare that a dessert is not improved by strawberries and cream. I'll figure it out and then I might call on you to test it again... Uh if that is okay of course. I can always log it as another repair ticket." Will chuckled and scratched her cheek, slightly worried she had been overly presumptuous.

Tree made a face. "Why the subterfuge? Just call me up some times, we'll have waffles and a girl's night out - for whatever definition of 'out' we can fudge together on this ol' tub," she smirked. "Was lovely meeting you - I should get back to work, still lots of tickets to answer."